We were lucky to catch up with Sandra Huerta recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sandra, thanks for joining us today. One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?
I like to focus more on growing my revenue, I believe there is always a possibility to grow even more when you seek for new ways, Like networking, being more involved in community, ask for advice from other business owners, be open to ideas, Open your eyes wide open for what can work for you, And always invest smarter.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Well, hello, my name is Sandra Huerta, I was born in Mexico second child of a single mother of five,
My first official business was at the age of 14th with some school mates and friends, Having this experience at this early age, allowed me to understand how hard work and Reinvesting into your business always come first, I have always being a money saver, since I was a little girl, I learned that to get to buy big things I need to do a little sacrifice first, this helped me a lot into my business career, “ not everything comes fast”,
Taking the decision to open a business, It’s a big step, that takes a lot of sacrifice, hard work and patience.
Helms Flowers , Came along way after a lot of these hard work and sacrifices, along with money saving discipline , I work as a waitress sometime before opening, Helms Flowers, I lost all my savings and I was this close to lose hope, It took long five years before I could say my business was profitable.
I had a background in money saving, I was aware of the hard work and sacrifices, but I did not know a thing about Flowers, I just found this little place with affordable rent and I said I’ll take it! I took me to watch a lot of YouTube videos and learned my new craft, so I could open my business, Got all my permits, and I was ready to swim against the current, which literally happen” There were a lot of steps back, but I do not regret Every single time in my journey, I am a person with the set of mind that everything is possible in this life if you just put yourself to work on it,
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My business took longer to get established, I open right after the 2010 US recession, I was advised that many flower shops were closing their doors in the city, But I was hopeful something in my heart told me to take this opportunity, And I had to tell you sometimes I questioned my self if I took the best decision, but I knew that, I had all my savings invested, along with my time, my hard work and sacrifices, so I was not gonna let go easy, I knew that I had to be strong and keep pushing day by day, It was so hard that one day I was overdraft in my bank account for days! and those were challenging days.
After I was just getting the sense of get establish, Covid-19 hit And I was forced to close my doors, I got a little bit afraid, one day, I gotta call from the companies I partner with, and they asked me to please go and make flower deliveries, there was a need for people to feel loved and for people to send love & smiles, so I put my fear In my pockets and went on to the deliver Flowers, with 2 gallons of sanitizer and doble face mask, I was out delivering flowers all over the LA city and surrounding areas, Just me myself and I. I still got messages from recipients being so grateful for getting flowers from their love ones, and some asking me to please be careful, I love the feeling of being of service.
Anything is possible if we set our minds to it.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I always wanted to have my own business, so for these I’m always sacrifice some and save money to when the time came, I found this little place on a magazine. It was a flower shop. They did only events mostly, when I visited in person, I thought they had the potential to be full open business to the public And grow income, I didn’t have a huge budget, so I did struggle a lot to what the needs were of the business in order to grow, so capital was a big issue for me. I’m always investing little by little and improving my business little by little which in the long run, , gave me good results. But it took longer than if I had the right capital.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.helmsflowers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helmsflowers/
Image Credits
@randalldeleonphotography
@anotherdreamprod